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Reviews
Boku no hatsukoi wo kimi ni sasagu (2009)
Entertaining
I saw this on an ANA flight from Japan to the USA - probably the only way I could see it since it doesn't seem to have been released in the USA.
Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as predictable as the title suggested and was not given a Hollywood happy ending. I didn't realize that manga were sometimes weepy teenage love stories.
I actually found the movie quite entertaining. Definitely weepy in parts. There's one absolutely surprising, hilarious, and brilliant scene where she berates him in front of the whole school for trying to break up with her. I watched it several times because it was so funny. Made the whole movie worth watching!
Freaks and Geeks (1999)
What a loss
I went to high school in Michigan in the 1980s and hated it. But I thought this show had so many touching and funny moments that I could relate to that it's really a shame it only lasted one season. This was the high school I remember - not populated by beautiful people with so-called problems. NBC gave shows with initially low ratings like Seinfeld and Friends a chance, why couldn't they have given Freaks and Geeks a chance before cancelling it. It's a real loss.
I loved the Geeks because I identify with them the most. They - especially Sam - actually look like the kids they're supposed to be, and I thought some of the most touching moments were when they were trying to straddle that line between childhood and adulthood. Like when Sam throws away his toy trucks but still decides to go trick-or-treating on Halloween.
The moment in the pilot when Sam leads Cindy on the dance floor and then the music changes from slow to fast is initially funny, but the pained look on Sam's face like he's about to cry before he awkwardly starts to dance and cheers up brought tears to my eyes. (There's a priceless deleted scene on the DVD called "our creepiest moment" where Sam and Cindy slow dance while singing the slow part of "Come Sail Away".).
The episode when they watch a porn movie and are freaked out until the gym teacher sets Sam straight is priceless. I loved how when Sam finally got the pretty cheerleader he'd been chasing it turned out she was boring and they had nothing in common. Not the usual plot lines you see on shows about teenagers. And the music was always appropriate - because it was a period piece they could avoid network executives telling them to promote the latest band like most teen shows.
Geeks deal with bullies, being picked last to be on school teams, and don't want to shower in public. Real high school problems. So many other touching moments: Bill coming home to an empty house and making himself a grilled cheese sandwich and having a great time watching TV, Neil realizing his father is having an affair, Bill resentful that his mother has a boyfriend.
That said, everything I liked about the show mostly related to the Geeks. I didn't understand the Freaks or why Lindsay wanted to hang out with them, especially at the beginning when they just wanted her for parties or cheating on tests. The implication was that she'd decided there were no rewards for being a good person after witnessing her grandmother dying, but clearly she was not comfortable being a Freak, at least not until later episodes when the Freaks seemed to develop some genuine affection for her.
The suggestion is that they were high all the time, but apart from one episode (when Lindsay smokes marijuana) they never seemed to be smoking. Lindsay's parents forbid her from hanging out with them after she crashed their car but at the end of the episode she goes back to them and nothing changes. Of the Freaks I liked Nick the best - sweet but clueless, the episode when Lindsay's father takes him under his wing is great - him singing "Lady" to Lindsay and writing "Lady L" were hilarious.
I thought the last episodes were going off in some strange directions which may have made more sense had the show continued: Lindsay following the Grateful Dead instead of going to the Academic Summit, Daniel joining the audiovisual team and playing Dungeons and Dragons, Nick discovering disco, and Ken going out with a tuba player.
Omkara (2006)
Didn't quite work
I always appreciate it when Indian directors try to make films that aren't just another tired Bollywood musical.
There's nothing inherently wrong with musicals, but does every Indian film have to be one?
That said, the whole premise of Omkara didn't quite work for me. Othello was a noble character - a soldier, a hero. You could understand why Desdemona would love him.
Omkara was not noble - he was a gangster. Why did Dolly love him?
It was harder to empathise with Omkara and his downfall after you see him being a thug. You wonder what the delicate and sheltered Dolly would possibly have in common with him.
Uzak (2002)
Pointless
There seem to be many fans of this movie here, but I found it boring, slow, meandering, and pointless. And I watch and enjoy plenty of art-house and independent films, so I wasn't expecting an action movie. I didn't sympathize with either character. The guy from the countryside was a bad guest and didn't seem to be trying very hard to find a job, and his relative in Istanbul was humorless and closed off emotionally.
In an interview on the DVD, the director says that the movie is about a common situation in Turkey - the person leaving in the countryside because there are no jobs and coming to Istanbul and staying with relatives while trying to find work. That in itself is interesting, but the movie wasn't.
Das Leben der Anderen (2006)
Another great German movie
Generally, I thought this was a great movie, very well done, very suspenseful. The ending was a great bit of closure - a nice touch where Georg could let Wiesler know that he knew what Wiesler had done for him. I would have liked Georg and Wiesler to have a conversation, but maybe that would have been too much of a Hollywood ending.
My main negative about the movie is that I didn't understand why Wiesler was so affected by the lives of Georg and Christa-Maria. Clearly his life was empty, but he was an experienced agent and had spied on many people, which probably included artists. I didn't see why he would feel such sympathy for these two to the point of putting himself at risk. But if you just take his feelings and reasons for what they are, the film works very well.
I saw von Donnersmarck interviewed (in English) and was surprised at his American accent - evidently he lived in New York for part of his childhood. I recently saw "Downfall" (Untergang) and "Head-On" (Gegen Die Wand), which were also excellent movies. I'm glad to see that German films are achieving international recognition.
Gegen die Wand (2004)
Wow!
I heard about this movie when it came out and finally got a chance to see it on DVD. All I can say is...wow! I didn't have any particular expectations, but I was compelled to watch it a few more times. Wonderful soundtrack - a great mix of punk and Turkish music. Loved the Turkish band acting as Greek chorus. Wonderful acting, wonderful directing. I thought I knew where the story was going, and then it went somewhere else completely. I was on the edge of my seat for the last 30 minutes or so wondering what would happen. I am definitely going to keep an eye on this director and the actors.
The movie certainly starts with a jolt - the first thing you see is a Turkish band in a picturesque setting singing a song of unrequited love. Then you see Birol Unel, and my first thought was - "This guy's Turkish?" - because he could easily pass for an ethnic German.
I think far too much has been made of the Turkish aspect of the story. They were outsiders in society, but not because of their Turkish background. Reviews that suggest that this movie is some statement on the state of Turkish "guest workers" in Germany are far off the mark. Every society has its outcasts - punk rockers, etc.
One major issue is that I wish they could have somehow indicated when they were speaking German and when they were speaking Turkish, because this is actually an important issue (I watched it with English subtitles). To me the languages don't sound different enough to tell them apart, though I could occasionally tell when they were speaking German when I recognized some German words.
The Namesake (2006)
Well done
I saw this at the September 13, 2006 screening at the Toronto Film Festival because the September 11 screening was sold out by the time we bought our tickets, unfortunately. Director Mira Nair (and another woman who was her producer, I believe) briefly introduced the movie.
I recently read the novel and the movie is very well done and a pretty faithful adaptation. Everyone does a fabulous job, but I particularly liked Irfan Khan as Ashoke and Kal Penn as Gogol. I have read that Mira Nair had seriously considered casting Abishek Bachchan as Gogol, which would have been a huge mistake. It is very important that Gogol be an American, and no Indian actor would have been able to pull this off. The movie takes place in New York, not Boston, and Ashima sings, but these do not particularly change the story. Moushumi is presented as quite the sexy bombshell, which she wasn't particularly in the book.
My major criticism is that I feel the movie was very unfair to Jacinda Barrett's character (Gogol's blond girlfriend Maxine). She was shown to be clueless, calling Gogol's parents by their first names, kissing Ashoke and Ashima and holding Gogol's hand when she meets his parents even though he had explicitly told her not to, and arriving at Ashoke's funeral wearing a sleeveless black top. This seemed to have been put in to make us all groan and laugh at the silly white girl. Gogol also treats her unfairly when she wants to share in his grief and come to India with them to scatter his father's ashes, when she fairly points out that Gogol had been treated as part of her family. In the book she had grown up in a very liberal household and called her own parents by their first names, very different from Gogol, but she knew how to behave around others.
But otherwise, a very moving film. I would highly recommend seeing it.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Haunting movie, best I've ever seen
I saw this movie for the first time about six weeks ago and although I knew it was a beautiful movie, I realized I didn't quite get it. Then strangely enough I found myself thinking about the movie days later, something that has never happened to me. So I read the short story and went to see the movie again, and boy did it get me the second time and each time I've seen it after that. In my mind, this is the only case of a movie being far better than the book it was based on. I've seen it eight times so far and cry every time and am still haunted by it. I'm glad to see that I'm not crazy based on the posts here. I even bought the script and the soundtrack for Santaolalla's beautiful score and Rufus Wainwright's haunting and melancholy "The Maker Makes".
What I found so incredible is that apart from being beautifully done, this film made me care so much about people who I would appear to have nothing in common with (I am a 36-year old female, American, of Indian heritage, never been to Wyoming though have been to Texas.) Ennis and Jack are very real to me and it's somewhat of a shock to remember that these are just actors who have gone on to other projects. It made me reflect on the decisions I've made in my own life, missed opportunities, missed loves, fears, etc. That is incredible film-making, and this movie deserves to a classic. Even if everyone involved in this film never make another good film the rest of their lives, they should be immensely proud of having been part of this film. I'm also awed that people like Ang Lee and Gustavo Santaolalla, who didn't even move to the US until the 1970s, could be involved in making such a beautiful piece of Americana.
I am an American who has been living abroad for more than four years, first in Paris and now in London. Oddly enough this movie has made me proud to be an American again (which has been difficult through the Bush presidency), to see that this sort of movie can be made and do well in an America that has become hostage to the conservatives (although I wonder if it's making most of its money from people like me seeing it multiple times rather than having wide appeal?). It gives me hope. For the first time, I want to move back to the US and see these beautiful places.
I was very disappointed that "Crash" won for best picture, thought it was a pretty bad movie. I was also surprised to read that some members of the Academy in supposedly liberal Hollywood couldn't bring themselves to watch "Brokeback Mountain". Guess times haven't changed that much.
A response to a very strange comment I've seen posted, that Ennis was "raped" by Jack and somehow forced into the relationship? Jack certainly made the first move, but after the initial struggle with himself, Ennis became the aggressor. My favorite scenes: the second tent scene, the reunion, but most of all, the flashback near the end to the Brokeback Mountain days where Ennis holds a sleepy Jack from behind, humming to him and rocking back and forth, where you see the love on Jack's face, then being rudely brought back to the present where you see Jack looking sad, disappointed, and frustrated, and knowing that this is the last time they will ever see each other.